‘Summerland’ in Nashville is a hometown gig for Lit

Lit plays Bridgestone Arena with the Summerland tour on August 6, 2012.

The rock hits of the ‘90s will be ringing out in Nashville on Monday, as the Summerland concert tour brings five bands of the alt-rock era — Everclear, Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Lit and Marcy Playground — to Bridgestone Arena. The Nashville stop is a bit of a hometown gig for the California-based Lit, as guitarist Jeremy Popoff has also broken into the country songwriting game and lives part time in Music City.

“The rock world and the country world, I don’t really know where one begins and one ends,” says Popoff, who’s had cuts with Jamey Johnson and Colt Ford and co-penned Heidi Newfield’s current single “Why’d You Have to Be So Good.”

“We all get together and hang out at the (Nashville bar) the Red Door, and you can’t tell who’s in what band, who writes country and who doesn’t. That’s what I love about that town.”

Popoff says the discipline he’s acquired as a Nashville songsmith made a positive impact on Lit’s new album, “View From the Bottom” — the group’s first in eight years. And while fans will be clamoring for the hits of yesteryear — like Lit’s 1999 breakthrough “My Own Worst Enemy” — at tonight’s show, Popoff says the Summerland tour isn’t just about nostalgia.

“People might expect a nostalgic night out, but I think they leave there going, ‘That was a (great) rock concert.’ It’s not about memory lane, it’s more about having a great time and hearing a bunch of great bands.”